throughout my life, i got into deep heated arguments with people regarding WWII. it’s not a subject that people want to talk about, but i think it’s good to voice your opinion. i honestly felt angry when i was reading my history books in high school. i couldn’t believe how a country could attack another country and their innocent people. back then, i didn’t even know about my own roots. and even though i was japanese, i had no idea that my grandpa’s parents and family were from hiroshima. i remember asking my grandpa about the war and what he thought about it. all he would tell me was that “in war, nobody wins.” he would gaze away and i could see him tearing. imagine being full japanese and living a happy life in hawaii. then one morning, you see japanese war planes flying over your house and heading towards pearl harbor. then BOOM, BANG, BOOM!!!!! how do you act? then 4 years later into the war, america drops a atom bomb on your home town, hiroshima? heavy or what?
after visiting pearl harbor and seeing the damage first hand, then going to hiroshima and seeing the damage first hand, my opinion has changed a lot. now i know what my grandpa meant when he said “in war nobody wins.”
i guess the good that came out of it is that there is a strong bond between hawaii and japan now. we all get along, we all don’t like war, and we all put the past away. war is a crazy subject but every year on december 7th(when pearl harbor was bombed), and august 6th(when hiroshima was bombed), i think about the innocent people that lost their lives. just 2 days of the year to think about things. today is one of them. never forget!
